Gordon Brown PM For Now

In what has been a truly chaotic 24 hours, the United Kingdom has voted for a Hung Parliament, with talks of a deal still ongoing. Earlier on Friday, the Liberal Democrats held several meetings with the Shadow Cabinet, with William Hague and George Osborne reluctant to give details. For now, however, Britain has a Labour Prime Minister, with Gordon Brown still in with a chance of forming power.

The Conservatives are now the largest party, and made a large number of gains, but are 20 seats short of a majority with 326 seats. Labour did not do well, but still have 258 seats; the Lib Dems are down slightly on their 2005 result, with 57 seats. However, it is Nick Clegg who holds the position of kingmaker. If he agrees to work with the Conservatives, then the Lib-Con coalition will have an overall majority of 37. If, on the other hand, he decides to work with Labour and Gordon Brown, that coalition would have 315 seats, which is slightly more than the Conservatives.

The majority of the Labour Cabinet have kept their seats, but it was not a good night for former Home Secretaries Charles Clarke and Jacqui Smith. Both of them lost their seats, with Redditch going to the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats taking Norwich South. Labour did make a few gains, and did well in Scotland: and crucially, Ed Balls managed to avoid his "Portillo moment".

In Buckingham, the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, managed to hold off the challenge of UKIP's Nigel Farage, who is still recovering in hospital. Neither UKIP nor the BNP gained any seats, with Nick Griffin soundly beaten into third place in Barking: but history was made by the Green Party, as they won their first seat ever, in Brighton Pavillion. There was also a surprise in Northern Ireland, as First Minister Peter Robinson lost his seat.

The Evening Stanners thinks it would be unwise to make a definite statment on who will be able to form a government: at the moment, all that's known is that Gordon Brown is still Prime Minister, David Cameron has fallen short, and Nick Clegg has some big decisions to make. But unless voting reform is agreed to - and after the scandalous scenes of people being unable to vote due to polling stations being unable to handle high turnout - it looks like we could see another general election before the year is out.

For now, it's a simple case of "close but no cigar" for the Conservatives: as Nick Clegg considers the consequences of a potential deal.

The Evening Stanners